DISCLAIMER: I do not own the Hunger Games or the film/novel Don't Say a Word. This story is for entertainment purposes only. I make no profit out of this and all of the characters, unless otherwise no ted, belong to their respective owners, the great Suzanne Collins and Andrew Klavan.

Chapter 10: You Want What They Want

"You are looking at Bristel, Victoria, Rory, Bonnie, Venia, Cecilia, Posy, Katniss Everdeen."

"I-I can't believe it…I don't believe it," said Annie.

"But its true," said Effie.

Annie sat down on the chair she previously occupied and looked over each paper.

"Bristel, age 14, Portland Oregon…Victoria, age 15, Seattle Washington…Rory, age 15, Boston Massachusetts…Bonnie, age 16, Phoenix Arizona…Venia age 16, San Diego California…Ceclia, age 16, Kansas City, Missouri…Posy, age 17, San Antonio Texas…Katniss Everdeen, age 17, Fresno California…t-this can't be happening. I-I just can't believe it."

"You better believe it Annie. Katniss, or whoever she is, has had seven different identities. They're all from different cities, in different states—put in each place by social services."

"B-But why?" asked Annie as she studied each paper carefully.

Effie shrugged her shoulders.

Annie continued to read through the papers carefully. Something was wrong. She could sense it. Every medical record in that folder was almost an exact replica of the one she had for the supposed Katniss Everdeen. There were no indications that she had ever been sick in her life and no family history.

"I bet if I research these names nothing would come up," she said as Effie watched the two teens in the next room.

"I can do that now if you'd like," said Effie.

Annie nodded her head as she handed the papers over to Effie who in turn took the papers from her and walked out the room.

How can this happen? How can this be? How can the attempted suicide of this seventeen-year-old girl be the one case that she just could not figure out?

This was not supposed to happen. This is notsupposed to happen. No, Annie was supposed to sit down and talk to Katniss, not Peeta. She was supposed figure out what's wrong with her. Instead, she was discovering that Katniss Everdeen had more than five identities while she was in one room and Peeta and Katniss were in the other.

She heaved a loud sigh as she looked towards Katniss' room. Peeta looked like he was trying to get her attention while Katniss was hanging upside down over the side of her bed, never ceasing to stop her 'writing finger'.

"Katniss Everdeen," whispered Annie, "Who are you?"

"…and then we played at the park and Rue's mom took us shopping and she bought us each a princess coloring book!" exclaimed Primrose as she sat on the island in the middle of the kitchen.

Peeta had arrived home an hour ago after he finished his first session with Katniss. Just as he had predicted, talking to Katniss was like trying to drown a fish…impossible. To his disappointment, after she had finished her song, she quickly shut the whole world out and sprawled herself over her bed while moving around her finger. Peeta had tried to talk to her countless times for the last two hours of his work day. He tried to ask her about the school year so far and about her plans for the future…or in her case…if she intended to have a future.

Once Dr. Cresta had said time was up, he slowly stood up and said bye to Katniss, who had ignored him the whole time. He then drove home and picked up Prim from his neighbors house since Gale had left him a message saying that something came up and he wouldn't be able to pick her up. They were both now in the kitchen where Peeta was heating up some leftover pizza from the night before while listening to his sister tell him about her day.

"That was very nice of Rue's mom. Did you thank her?"

Prim nodded her head as her brother took the heated pieces of pizza and placed them on a plate.

"Then we were coloring and drawing all day until you came to pick me up. But I don't care. I like being here with you," she said while giving him the most innocent smile he had ever seen.

Peeta returned the smile; "I like spending time with you too."

He gave her a piece of pizza as she suddenly gasped.

"I almost forgot!" she exclaimed as she jumped off the island and ran out of the kitchen. She came back in less than a minute with a piece of paper behind her back.

"What do you have there?" he asked.

She quickly took the paper from behind her back and outstretched her arms towards Peeta.

"I made this for you."

He gave her a genuine smile as he gladly accepted his gift. It was a picture that she had masterfully drawn. She had drawn a stick figure version of him and her outside in a yard full of flowers while they were flying what seemed to be a kite. Above the stick figures were arrows pointing down to each figure with the words Peeta and Me.

"Why thank you Prim," he said as he suddenly scooped her up in his arms and planted a kiss on her forehead.

There was a sudden knock on the door.

"I wonder who that could be?" asked Peeta as he walked towards the front door while he carried her against his hip.

He opened the door and revealed Gale with crutches under his armpits and a cast on his right leg.

"Don't. Ask," said Gale as Peeta stood aside to let his best friend in.

"Dude, you know I'm still gonna ask."

Peeta followed Gale into the kitchen where he sat down at the table and put his crutches aside.

"Peeta, why does Gale have a rock on his leg?" asked Prim.

"I don't know. Why does Gale have a rock on his leg?" asked Peeta as he sat Prim on the island.

He looked over at his best friend who reached over and grabbed Peeta's piece of pizza from the plate.

He crossed his arms and stood in front of Gale, waiting for an explanation. Gale looked up at his friend while he chewed.

"What?" he asked.

Peeta rolled his eyes, "You know exactly what, so spill."

"I-It's kind of embarrassing."

"More embarrassing than the time Thom pantsed you in front of Glimmer?"

Gale continued to eat the pizza as he thought about it.

He finally shook his head.

"No, but it's certainly close."

Gale gave a loud sigh as Peeta leaned against the island.

"I spent the night at Madge's house."

Peeta arched his eyebrow, "Doing what?"

"Y-You know, w-we were just fucking around."

Peeta gave Gale an amused look.

"Peeta," said Prim, "what does fucking mean?"

Peeta's eyes widened as he turned towards Prim. He had completely forgotten that she was sitting on the island.

"Umm," he began, "I-It's a very, very bad word that you can never say, especially in front of mom and dad."

Prim nodded her head as Peeta walked over to the table and picked up her plate before Gale could get to it.

"Here," he said, "why don't you take your pizza and eat it while watching T.V.?"

"But we're not allowed to eat in the living room."

"What mom and dad don't know won't hurt them. It'll be our little secret."

Prim nodded her head as she jumped off the island, took the pizza and ran into the living room.

"Gale you idiot, watch your language in front of Prim!" he yelled once he heard Prim turn the T.V. on.

"I'm sorry." He said as he finished eating the crust, "Now as I was saying, I spent the night at Madge's because we were…you know. Her parents were going into the city on business or something so she called me over to see if I wanted to hang out. Then one thing led to another and next thing I know its eight in the morning and Madge's hitting my head with a pillow yelling at me to get up. Turns out her parents were gonna show up earlier than expected and they called to say that they were five minutes away. So I jumped out of her bed and I tried to put my clothes on quickly. I didn't want to get caught because we all know what Senator Undersee would flip a shit if he saw me anywhere near her."

"Could you blame him? He caught you guys making out at the father-daughter dance."

"Why cant people just get over that?"

"He caught you guys in a janitor's closet practically naked."

"Ok…I'll admit…not the smartest decision, but still. That doesn't mean he can send my mom all those brochures for military school in the middle of nowhere."

"Gale, he's a senator who might very well run for office one day. He can do whatever the fuck he wants."

Gale rolled his eyes, "As I was saying, I was in a hurry to get out so I was trying to put my pants on while I was running down the stairs. Big mistake. I tripped over them and fell down the stairs. I guess I landed wrong because my leg started hurting me. Madge said we didn't have any time so she practically dragged me out back. I literally had to crawl all the way home. I told my mom I fell off of my skateboard."

"Gale you don't own a skateboard. You don't even know how to skateboard."

"I know, but my mom was so worried about her 'baby' that she just rushed me the hospital. I thought about going up to see you, but my mom said it wasn't proper for me to associate with anarchists."

"Since when does she think I'm an anarchist?"

"Since you spent two hours in a jail cell."

Peeta rolled his eyes.

"So now, I'm in this fucking cast until God knows when." he sighed, "There goes the rest of my vacation."

Peeta shrugged his shoulders.

Not only did he feel bad that Gale broke his leg but he was somewhat relieved that Mrs. Hawthorne did not let Gale visit him. If it were any other day, Peeta would have been slightly bummed that his best friend didn't visit. But not today. Today was one of the most life changing days of his life.

Today, he spoke to Katniss Everdeen, the person who constantly occupied his mind. He didn't know why though. He figured it was because he was still guilty. But something inside him told him otherwise.

The next morning, Peeta found himself in the employee lounge filling out some papers for Dr. Cresta. As part of their agreement, Dr. Cresta wanted a daily report on Katniss' moods and behavior. This was Peeta's least favorite part since winter vacation was supposed to be a break from writing any sort of papers…however the same could be said about waking up ridiculously early, working, cooking, cleaning, and so forth.

While Peeta was trying to select a number between one and ten to describe Katniss' mood from the day before, Dr. Odair walked into the room with a cup of coffee in his hand.

"Good morning Peeta," he said as he walked over to the small kitchen counter in the room.

"Morning Dr. Odair," the younger man replied.

"Stop with the formalities Peeta," said Finnick with a wave of his hand, "please, call me Finnick, Mr. Odair is my father—not a very good one I might add."

"Okay, Finnick," said Peeta with a small smile.

As he went back to rating Katniss in his paperwork Peeta felt the sudden presence of someone behind him. He suddenly looked up and was startled to find Finnick standing over him, practically reading over his shoulder.

"What are you doing there?" he asked.

"Oh, I'm writing up the report of Katniss' progress," explained Peeta, "Dr. Cresta wants me to turn one in everyday but I kind of forgot to do it yesterday."

"Ah yes," said Finnick, "that Katniss Everdeen, ever the enigma. It almost makes you question whether she's crazy or just really, really good at hiding something."

"Hiding?" asked Peeta, "You think she's hiding something and that's why she tried to kill herself?"

Finnick shrugged as he walked back towards the kitchen counter, "It's definitely one possibility, don't you think?"

"I uh…I don't know what to think," said Peeta. He really didn't know what to think. Up until this point he just believed that Katniss Everdeen was going through some kind of depressing mid life crisis.

"Well think about it," said Finnick as he began to look for something in one of the cupboards, "Why else would someone come in with sliced wrists and a bunch of drugs in their system. Most of the time it's just a cry for help. Teens like her never cut deep enough, or take the right amount of drugs. They hurt themselves just enough to grab peoples attention, but not enough to actually kill them."

"But you don't think that's the case here," said Peeta.

Finnick once again shrugged his shoulder as he finally found what he was looking for and turned to lean back on the counter.

"She knew what to do and how to do it, almost as if she's done this once or twice before," said Finnick.

Peeta was confused. He couldn't fathom the idea of Katniss hiding anything so big that she'd try to die for it let alone twice. She's mentioned something about someone wanting something, but he didn't think anything of it.

"Secrets make the world go round," he heard Finnick say from his spot at the counter.

"I thought that's what they say about money?" asked Peeta.

"Oh no, don't get me wrong, money is an important factor," said Finnick, "but secrets—were the reason money was created. You see Peeta, money is just an agreement by everyone of us to be used as a medium of exchange. If you want to use a rock as your medium of exchange, then you can call that rock money. But before any kind of exchange was created, people had to have some sort of hold over each other; something to be held over as payment to create some sort of trust between two people. If I wanted to buy a horse from Annie and I didn't have any money, she would still want a payment right? She wouldn't want to be cheated. So instead of offering her nothing, I offer her a secret—something no one else will know, something that will ruin me if anyone found out."

"But…but why would you offer her a secret that could potentially ruin you? Why give her that power?" asked a very confused Peeta.

"To pay a debt, to settle a score."

None of this made any sense. Why would anyone offer harmful information about themselves as a bargaining tool? If someone had a harmful secret, wouldn't it be easier to just keep it to themselves? Better yet, why would Katniss be hiding something so harmful that she would literally die for it? Katniss did always keep to herself. He could count the number of people she interacted with at school on his hand. It could be that she was just being shy. Or it could be that she was too scared to let anyone close because she was afraid someone would find out about something—something harmful. If Katniss was hiding something, then maybe she tried to hide it the best way she knew how.

She ran.

"So you're saying that Katniss had tried to kill herself multiple times because she has a debt to pay that she doesn't want to pay?" asked Peeta.

"It is definitely one possibility, no?" asked Finnick as he opened the small package he grabbed from the cupboard.

If it wasn't a possibility before, then it definitely is now. But still he wasn't all too sure about this theory, or comfortable for that manner.

"But…why are you telling me this? Dr. Cresta said that I couldn't talk about Katniss with anyone else," said Peeta.

"Peeta, there will be times when you find that sometimes you just have to bend the rules. You have to offer up something in order to get something in return," said Finnick as he smirked at Peeta, "You see, I can get in very big trouble for offering confidential information to someone who has no business knowing it. But I do it so that one person can one day give me something in return."

Realization soon dawned on Peeta. This wasn't just a normal conversation between two people. This was an offer—a trade. A secret kept for a secret to be found out. The question on his mind was this: should he take the bait? And what secret could Dr. Odair be after?

"But how do you know that they wont betray you?" asked Peeta, "How do you know they'll agree to offer you something in return for what you offered them?"

"Trust," said Finnick, "you trust that they live up to their character. You see, I'll admit that when it comes to fun and games I can be a dishonest person. Yes I've cheated on poker games and on past relationships and I've definitely shared some information that I was not supposed to. But a dishonest person you can trust to be dishonest. It's the honest ones you have to worry about because you never know when they're going to do something stupid. Everyone has skeletons that can be dug up, weaknesses that no one is supposed to know about."

Peeta felt his throat tighten and took a big gulp. Did Dr. Odair just insinuate that he has something over Peeta if he did not play into his game? He's only known him for a couple of days and he could count the number of conversations they've had with one hand. What could he possible have over him?

"But what about Dr Cresta?" asked Peeta, "wont she be furious if she finds out what you're telling me?"

"What Annie doesn't know wont kill her," said Finnick with a smug look on his face, "It'll be our little secret. Why, I myself haven't dealt in anything as common as money for years"

"Then how do you get paid for your work?" asked Peeta hesitantly.

"With secrets," replied Finnick with a wry smile as he extended the contents from the package in his hand, "Sugar cube?"

"So, what's your favorite color?"

"…"

"Let me guess, its yellow isn't it?"

"…"

"No? Is it because you don't like cheese?"

"…"

"Because remember, I don't like cheese either."

"…"

Peeta gave a loud sigh. He had been trying to get Katniss to talk for the last two hours. However, since he had walked into the room, she had seemed completely unfazed by his presence, which he had to admit made him a bit upset. Not only was he still thinking about the curious offer made to him by Dr. Odair, but he was also frustrated at the fact that he couldn't get her to open up to him.

She was currently lying upside down on her bed while he sat in front of her. Her dead eyes stared at the wall behind him. Her long and dark stringy hair fell around head and touched the floor. Her breasts, which he noticed were a fair size for a petite girl, were slowly moving up and down in a slow rhythm as she took small breaths. Her small, clammy hands tightly gripped her sheets as if to stop her self from falling headfirst on the tiled floor.

Although the sight of her would have been considered weird and disturbing, Peeta couldn't help but think that she looked like the most beautiful girl in the world.

"What about your favorite movie?"

"…"

"Song?"

"…"

"Food?"

"…"

"Ice cream?"

"…"

"Anything?"

"…"

"Are you ever gonna say something instead of staring at the stupid wall behind me?" he asked with frustration laced onto his voice.

"Are you ever gonna stop pretending that you actually care?"

The comment caught Peeta off guard. He didn't expect her to respond since it almost felt like he was the only one in the room.

"Well, that's a start." he said as she slowly sat up.

"You didn't answer my question," she said as she stretched her arms above her head. She then stood up and walked towards the front of the bed where she stood with her legs apart. She bent down until her hands touched the ground and moved from the middle to each of her legs.

"I-I do care," he said.

"You stuttered."

"What's your point?"

"If you did care, then you wouldn't have stuttered."

"Oh," said Peeta quietly as he mentally cursed himself.

He watched her stretch her legs and then jump up and down a few times as if she was getting ready to go for a jog.

"Can I ask you what you're doing?"

"You just did."

Peeta rolled his eyes, "So, what are you doing?"

"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm stretching and warming up. I'm shocked you didn't know, aren't you like a football god or something like that?"

"I know that, but why are you doing that?"

She suddenly stopped and looked over her shoulder at him with a somewhat seductive smirk on her face, "Wouldn't you like to know."

She then bent over to stretch her legs again as small giggles left her mouth.

"You are unlike any other girl, you know that right?"

"Why? Because I tried to kill myself?"

Peeta's eyes widened at her comment. He had never expected her to bring that up.

When she didn't hear him respond, she stood up from her stretching position and slowly walked over and stood in front of him.

"What?" she asked, "You've never stayed so quiet before."

She slowly got closer to him and gently passed her fingers over his golden locks of hair.

"Let me guess, you've never been this close to a crazy person before," she slowly bent down to his eye level and moved her face closer to his, "Don't worry, I wont bite."

He felt the blood in his cheeks rise as her face got closer to his. Their eyes never left each others. He so desperately wanted to kiss her slightly chapped lips but decided against it. He forced himself to look away from her eyes and caught site of her deeply scared wrist. Memories of the conversation with Dr. Odair earlier returned to his mind. She knew exactly where to cut and how deep. He looked closer and saw that behind her fresh deep scars were fragments of older ones that had been trying to heal. He gently reached for her wrist and touched the wounds that—he now suspected more than once—she had so desperately tried to kill herself with.

He felt her whole body tense up. He looked back at her eyes and noticed that the confidence she had seconds before was now gone and instead, he saw a scared and fragile young girl. She quickly pushed herself away from him and walked over to the wall behind him. She then touched the wall with her hands as if she was savoring the cool feel of the tile. Although she tried to hide it, her body gently started shaking as she started to scratch at the wall in front of her.

"Why are you trying to torture me?" she asked, barely above a whisper.

Peeta's eyes widened at her question. Why would she think he was torturing her?

"I'm not trying to torture you."

"Yes you are!" she exclaimed as she suddenly turned to face him once again. Her eyes had turned red and slightly puffy as tears cascaded down her pale cheeks.

"No I'm not."

"STOP IT! JUST STOP IT RIGHT NOW!" she yelled.

Peeta suddenly stood up, "No, Katniss, I'm not trying to do anything to you. I want to help you," he said calmly.

"STOP TRYING TO MESS WITH MY MIND."

"Katniss, I'm not messing with you. I'm just trying to help you!"

"NO YOU 'RE NOT! YOU'RE TRYING TO GET INTO MY HEAD AND I WANT YOU TO GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY HEAD!" she yelled as she pointed to her head.

"Why won't you let me in?"

"Why?" she asked, her voice returning to its normal dead tone, "You wanna know why?"

Peeta gently nodded his head.

She suddenly looked towards the one way mirror in her room. Her vision was suddenly blurred as she walked closer to it. She suddenly looked back at him.

"Katniss please…let me help you," he said in a gentle voice.

However, Katniss shook her head as she pointed to the transparent wall, "YOU WANT WHAT THEY WANT!"

"Katniss who is they?"

"YOU WANT WHAT THEY WANT!"

"Katniss, I want to help you, please let me help you."

"GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY ROOM!" she yelled as she completely collapsed on the floor.

He suddenly ran over to her in an attempt to help her. However, she started to back away until she backed into the corner of the room. She quickly hugged her legs tightly to her chest as she gently started to rock herself.

There was a sudden knock on the door, which was the signal for Peeta to get out. He slowly walked towards the door and saw Dr. Cresta's eyes telling him to leave the room. He let out a loud sigh as he looked back at the broken girl in the corner.

"I-I'm gonna help you Katniss. Someway, somehow, you're gonna let me in." he whispered as he left the room, leaving her in her small bubble of darkness.

Words cannot describe how badly I feel about the lateness of this chapter. I really wrestled with this one due to some very last minute changes that I had for this story. I really hope you guys can find it in your heart to forgive me. I apologize to anyone that I let down. Hopefully this chapter can somehow make up for it.

The next chapter is almost complete. However, if anyone can point out the quote used from one of the Hunger Games books, as well as another quote from a completely different movie, I will give you guys a very early sneak peak of the next chapter :)

Please don't forget to review, even if its just to say "update soon" or to berate me for the hiatus.